Home Decorating for Fall

Okay, I managed to finish most of the fall decorating this past weekend.  The kids disagree with this statement since the inside of our house does not look like a carnival haunted house - they are still working on it!  There are definitely some other things we will be working on as the season progresses.  We have several pumpkin patch trips planned and if I can build up enough energy there is a plate craft I want to try out with Dollar Store plates.  

Below are just a few of the fall decor areas in our house right now.  I was really happy with the front of our house but then a wind storm broke all our corn stalks, so no picture of that just yet.  We also were gifted a very cool little Halloween village of houses that light up, once that area is all set up I will sure to post pics. 

The dining room table.

This display is in our living room. Dollar store crows are perfect!

Entryway table.

I love the feather tree from Hobby Lobby,

Halloween printable free from www.kristanlynn.com in an IKEA frame with a spider attached to it.  

My scarecrow buddies.

A new edition this year, Jack Skellington hanging from the light fixture.  Emmie is obsessed with
The Nightmare Before Christmas so this purchase was a no-brainer!

Fall leaves and spider webs along the staircase.

Even the bulletin board got a little fall love.

The kids made this door hanger.

Fall is Here!

Fall is here and I could not be happier about that!  Fall is definitely my favorite season and winter is a close second for me.  I love the cooler temperatures and everything pumpkin about Fall.  Then it is followed by stormy nights and Christmas lights – what’s not to love about that?  

My love of all things fall, coupled with my biological need to nest during this pregnancy, has me obsessing over decorating the house this year.  Of course, Pinterest is not helping this obsession at all.  And then I wandered over to Pottery Barn’s website and saw all of their Fall decorating photos… bad idea.  Once I remembered I do not have a Pottery Barn budget for decorating, I got to work trying to recreate the look with our existing décor, Dollar store finds, coupons at Hobby Lobby, free printouts, and re-purposing what we have around the house. 

Couple things I have learned so far –

1. Morning sickness is kicking my butt.  I am exhausted all the time.  Therefore grandiose ideas of craft projects are not very realistic this year.  Thank you Pinterest for the inspiration, but unless I can do it in a couple minutes, preferably from bed, it’s just not happening this time around. 
2. Decorating the house is a multi-day project.  This is very unlike me.  I am a get-it-done-in-one-shot kind of gal.  My house turns from Fall into Christmas the day after Thanksgiving – I don’t mess around.  This year, I am too tired and sick to get much done in one day.  So, I am learning to do this a couple steps at a time.  Frustrating for me but I am sure this is some cosmic life lesson... 
3. The kids do not see the point in carefully planned out, color coordinated, strategically placed Halloween decorations.  They would prefer the entire house look like a scene from Nightmare Before Christmas and that it look that way from September 1 through Halloween.  Subtlety is lost on them, and flashy foil party decorations are the coolest things ever – we must find a way to compromise!

So, stay tuned for the pics to be posted this weekend - hopefully!

Fireplace Makeover

Home decorating is a passion of mine and can often get pushed to the back burner when the To Do list is miles long.  But, I have been trying to focus more on it in the past couple months which makes me happy. :o)

Sometimes you want to paint, but you don't want to paint the whole wall.  In those cases a little paint as an accent can go a long way.  A couple weeks ago I added some deep chocolate brown paint to the wall around our fireplace in an attempt to make it stand out more in the living room.  What do you think??
 

BEFORE

AFTER

The whole project took a little over an hour to do and the cost was minimal since I didn't need much paint.  The trick with getting clean lines on a textured wall is to use paintable caulk along the edge of the blue tape when you tape it off.  The caulk fills in the crevices along the edge that a textured wall creates, leaving crisp lines when you are done. 

Wall Collage

I have been focusing on home redecorating lately, and after pinning way too many images of other people's wall photo collages I finally made one of my own.  Besides the fact that I am missing actual photos in any of the frames, I think it turned out great!  

Painted the wall a nice neutral color, got some matchy-matchy frames from IKEA, a vinyl letter statement about family, a big "F" from Michaels, and viola! Now just have to print some family pics in black & white and get them up there to complete the look.